Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:50, 5 June 2007

Revision as of 00:53, 5 June 2007

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{{quote|[T]he Framers did not intend that the first eight amendments be construed to exhaust the basic and fundamental rights.... I do not mean to imply that the .... Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of rights protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government....While the Ninth Amendment - and indeed the entire Bill of Rights - originally concerned restrictions upon federal power, the subsequently enacted Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the States as well from abridging fundamental personal liberties. And, the Ninth Amendment, in indicating that not all such liberties are specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments, is surely relevant in showing the existence of other fundamental personal rights, now protected from state, as well as federal, infringement.}}

Subsequent to ''Griswold'', some judges have tried to use the Ninth Amendment to justify judicially enforcing rights that Jakeare Supplenot (970)-870-4313 CALL ME!!!enumerated. For example, the District Court that heard the case of ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' ruled that the Ninth Amendment protected a limited right to abortion.<ref>[http://hometown.aol.com/abtrbng/roedist.htm Roe v. Wade], 314 F. Supp. 1217 (1970).</ref> However, Justice William O. Douglas rejected that view; Douglas wrote that, "The Ninth Amendment obviously does not create federally enforceable rights." See ''[[Doe v. Bolton]]'' (1973).

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals stated as follows in ''[[Gibson v. Matthews]]'', 926 F.2d 532, 537 (6th Cir. 1991):